Architecture: Skyscraper Competition

Description

This project investigates the skyscraper, questioning its standalone nature and its compact, rigid configuration. The project proposes to focus on the interaction between programs and transformation of the building volume by creating a city-like skyscraper taking street life programs vertically, into the sky.

Beginning at street-level, programs such as parks, retail hubs and entertainment centres are stacked vertically on top of one another, with residential apartment units flanking both sides of the ‘skin’ of the skyscraper.

Pudong, an area of Shanghai, China is chosen as a case study for our proposal, as it is one of the most populated cities in the world that is experiencing rapid urban growth. What was formerly a little farmland has exponentially grown since the 1990s due to migration from rural to urban China, and has emerged as China’s financial and commercial hub, bristling with glittering skyscrapers. The result is a porous tower with a range of programs as well as parks and terraces distributed throughout the building, with a community where relationships and connection within the tower is seen not just vertically but both horizontally and vertically, culminating in a network of connection to exist between various habitants. The proposed tower will behave like a ‘vertical city’, and will best be able to cope with change while meeting the objective of sustainable development.